Message-Id: <361FFB23.30DF@cyberhighway.net>
Date: Sat, 10 Oct 1998 18:26:12 -0600
From: Sandi Augsburger <sandilee@cyberhighway.net>
Reply-To: sandilee@cyberhighway.net
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To: minstrel@pbm.com
Subject: Re: minstrel: Guitars, Cadillacs...
References: <01BDEDF9.6BF06C40.lnktheriot@csi.com>
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Ken Theriot wrote:> 
>  
> 
>  Guitars ARE period.  So there.  Don't let anyone tell you differently, or
> that the vihuela is period and the guitar is not.  The terms vihuela and
> guitarra were fairly interchangeable in period, and both instruments have
> evolved and still exist (next time you see a Mariachi band, ask the vihuela
> player to show you his instrument.  It's quite different from the guitar).
>  There is a collection of music for the vihuela called "El Maestro"
> published in Valencia in 1535.  The frontispiece is a woodcut of Orpheus
> playing on an instrument which is virtually indistinguishable from a modern
> 12-string guitar (6 paired courses of strings, flat head with inset tuning
> pegs [not tipped back with the pegs turned out like a lute head], etc.)

I agree with you that the vihuela (and gittern, and cittern) are to be
found in period. But guitars were not. The figure-8 shaped instrument
did not come into existence until the end of the 1700's. The first major
composer to write for the guitar was Fernando Sor, a friend of Mozart. 

I have a guitar like the one he would have played on. It is NOT period
but it is certainly closer than the present day accoustic guitar that
has only been around for about 100 years. The construction and
sound-production are also different than the original guitar of Fernando
Sor. 

(Off-subject: did you know that Shubert, Beethoven, and Paganini, to
name a few, wrote for classical guitar, and Liszt said that there is
nothing more beautiful than a guitar, save perhaps two?)

Classical guitarists play period music by retuning the guitar. But the
sound is not the same. The pear-shape of the lute (which Bach wrote 4
suites for) gives it a different sound, as do the gut strings. Some
guitarists are using gut strings on their guitar and plucking them with
callouses on their fingertips, rather than using nails. But it's still
not the same.

Cecily Alys de Percy
(MKA Sandi Augsburger)

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